Graduate Intern Teaching

The Graduate Intern Teaching Certification is designed exclusively for candidates who hold a bachelor's degree and who seek to qualify for the Pennsylvania Instructional I Certificate in order to teach teach (Biology, Chemistry, Earth & Space, English, Environmental Ed, General Science, Mathematics, and Physics) at the secondary school level in PA only. This certification is not available to students who can’t teach in PA or who live overseas.

Completion of all required Praxis II exams, four of the core courses (includes EDUC 520, 542, Methods and EDUC 540 Student Teaching) and select undergraduate content courses leads to a temporary Intern Teacher Certificate issued by the Pennsylvania Department of Education. This feature makes the program ideal for those who would like to begin teaching in Pennsylvania in as few as nine months to a year while completing the remainder of the required PA Instructional I certification courses.

This program is available online.

Eligibility and Requirements
In order to be eligible, students must possess a baccalaureate degree related to their area of certification and a minimum 3.0 GPA. Students generally must have already completed the state-required content courses. For a complete list of content courses, please contact the School of Education at 215-895-6770.

Accepted students will receive a PA Intern Plan of Study to follow which outlines the order and terms a candidate should take the required core pedagogy courses and procedures to follow to successfully complete the PA Intern Certification. The length of time to obtaining the PA Intern Certification will depend upon the term the candidate enters the program and when the student successfully completes the required core pedagogy courses (EDUC 520, 542, specific Methods course, EDUC 540 Graduate Student Teaching), Praxis II exam/s, in addition to the required content courses.

If a student begins the program in the spring term, the earliest he or she can begin his or her student teaching is during the winter term, thus stretching the minimum duration of obtaining the PA Intern Certification to one year.

EDUC 540 Graduate Student Teaching requires that the candidate applies for Student Teaching field placement according to the application deadlines and procedures and is placed in a state approved public secondary classroom specific to their certification subject area for a minimum of six hours per day, five days a week for 12 weeks.

Once a student has successfully completed EDUC 520, 542, Methods course, and 540, along with all Praxis exams and content courses necessary for their specific area of teacher certification, the candidate is eligible to apply for the Pennsylvania Intern Certificate.

Once a Pennsylvania Intern Certificate has been obtained, students are required to take a minimum of one course per term toward the remaining requirements for full certification, the PA Instructional I.

Please see the Pennsylvania Department of Education&rsqho;s website for the web version of their Intern Handbook regarding the PA Intern Certification Program.